"The Lord works from the inside out. The world works from the outside in. The world would take people out of the slums. Christ would take the slums out of people, and then they would take themselves out of the slums. The world would mold men by changing their environment. Christ changes men, who then change their environment. The world would shape human behavior, but Christ can change human nature...Yes, Christ changes men, and changed men can change the world."
Ezra Taft Benson

Dec 20, 2011

First Off

First off,"first off" is a very peculiar way to begin a list. First off of what? I'm curious as to the origins of that phrase.

Secondly,I just happened to notice that I blogged 11 times in November. Take a moment to soak in this unplanned awesomeness. 11 posts in the month of 11 in the year of '11.

Third,yes, this list is breaking the grammatical law of parallelism. To those who noticed: have you ever heard that variety is the spice of life? To those who didn't notice: don't worry 'bout it.

one is askedto viewtheir total errortheir life-wastewithkindliness,especially if they areaged.

but age is the totalof our doing.they have aged badlybecause they havelived out of focus,they have refused tosee.

not their fault?

whose fault?mine?

I am asked to hidemy viewpointfrom themfor fear of theirfear.

age is no crime

but the shameof a deliberatelywasted life

among so manydeliberatelywastedlives

is."

Wow, eh? (Tangent: sometimes people age badly for other reason than living their lives out of focus. Alzheimer's is what came to my mind.)I think...hmmm. I think if we take this poem and use it as an excuse to judge others, we're no better off.But it was a good reminder to me that, while we should try to respect other people and where they are coming from, that does not give us an excuse to stop striving to align ourselves with high ideals and morals.